Cate Blanchett reveals her dream role to play an unglamorous Bond villain

The full feature appears in the April issue of Harper's Bazaar UKSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 01: Australian actress Naomi Watts arrives at a promotion for Jacobs Creek wine at Centennial Park on February 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)Cate BlanchettChristian BaleNatalie PortmanAdrien Brody

CATE Blanchett is so keen to play a Bond villain that she would be "there in a heartbeat" if the producers came calling.

The 43-year-old actress said she would be happy to play an unglamorous baddie, citing Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love (played by Lotte Lenya) as her favourite character.

Asked by Harper’s Bazaar magazine if she would like to appear in the next Bond film, Blanchett replied: “Oh, God, yes! I’d be there in a heartbeat.

“I love Lotte Lenya. She had a club foot and a limp. I’m not a purist in that way.”

Blanchett who played Sunday Independent journalist Veronic Guerin in the biopic of her life, also expressed an interest in portraying Diana, Princess of Wales on screen, although since the interview was carried out it has been announced that Naomi Watts will play the late princess in a forthcoming biopic.

Her two latest projects are Terrence Malick films: Lawless, in which she appears with Ryan Gosling, and Knight of Cups, with Natalie Portman and Christian Bale.

However, Blanchett said she was unsure how prominent her roles will be. “I can’t guarantee I’ll end up in [the final cut], as is his wont,” she said of the director’s methods. Famously, Adrien Brody believed he had the lead role in Malick’s The Thin Red Line, only to attend a screening and find his performance had been cut to two lines.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Australian actress revealed that her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, has a novel line in gifts.

“My husband went through a phase of giving me vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and Mixmasters,” she laughed. “It’s ironic. He is encouraging me to develop a hobby, I think.”

But she added: “An actress once advised me, ‘Make sure you do your own laundry - it will keep you honest’.”

Blanchett and Upton live in Australia, where they run the Sydney Theatre Company and raise their children Dashiell, 10, Roman, seven, and three-year-old Ignatius.